But the victim of the crime, who was at Friday's hearing, said Orban's sentencing means a lot to her."I'm a little disappointed that it got postponed again," she said after the hearing. "I really just want it to be over. "

I am not about to excoriate someone who had something this bad happen to her. But honey, it IS over. YOU are the one who cannot let the man's DEATH make it be over. YOU are the one who needs to hear the judge say "The defendant is sentenced to the statutory maximum of 25 years to life, which makes no difference in this case because he's already in the ground." Why that will finish it for you where hearing this shiatbag took the coward's way out and hung himself in his cell, I can't imagine. My guess is, it won't.

If I had been raped by some dirtbag cop, and he hung himself instead of facing justice, I'd be dancing on his shiat-strewn grave, and screw sentencing him. But someone sold this poor girl on the idea of "closure" and now she can't get past that. Which is sad.

Marcus Aurelius:NutWrench: Sentencing happens after conviction, right? What's the point of deciding what kind of punishment is appropriate for a dead person?

I suppose it all depends on the terms of his police union pension, doesn't it?

I was wondering something along those lines - if his pension/retirement/life-insurance benefits would somehow depend on how he was sentenced, but it seems more likely that those would depend on conviction rather than a sentence.

Still, it would be a dick move to try to rob his beneficiaries of any benefits just because this guy was an asshole.

Gyrfalcon:You can't only blame this one on the judge and a crazy legal system.

But the victim of the crime, who was at Friday's hearing, said Orban's sentencing means a lot to her."I'm a little disappointed that it got postponed again," she said after the hearing. "I really just want it to be over. "

I am not about to excoriate someone who had something this bad happen to her. But honey, it IS over. YOU are the one who cannot let the man's DEATH make it be over. YOU are the one who needs to hear the judge say "The defendant is sentenced to the statutory maximum of 25 years to life, which makes no difference in this case because he's already in the ground." Why that will finish it for you where hearing this shiatbag took the coward's way out and hung himself in his cell, I can't imagine. My guess is, it won't.

If I had been raped by some dirtbag cop, and he hung himself instead of facing justice, I'd be dancing on his shiat-strewn grave, and screw sentencing him. But someone sold this poor girl on the idea of "closure" and now she can't get past that. Which is sad.

...aaand, I think we're done here. (*bangs gavel*)

I was just going to make a snide remark about the obscene preoccupation with empty abstractions in the American legal system. But, yeah: that doesn't much hold a candle to the Cult of Closure that's infested our thinking about criminal justice over the last 20 years.

Somehow, we rather suddenly got this very strange notion that the system is/could/should be about "restoring" victims of crime--when nothing about how that system evolved over the last 700-or-so years suggests that makes a lick of sense.

poison_amy:Green Scorpio: "I can't comprehend how you can go ahead and sentence someone who is dead,"

Why do people insist on inserting things like this into a sentence?

I'm a teacher. This likely comes from high school writing assignments with a specific word limit. By the time people reach my classes, they are so needlessly wordy that I spend the first half of the semester teaching the "Paramedic Method" to cut out the lard. By the end of the semester, 50% are clear and concise, and the other 50% think I'm a silly twat who just doesn't know good writing.

TuteTibiImperes:Marcus Aurelius: NutWrench: Sentencing happens after conviction, right? What's the point of deciding what kind of punishment is appropriate for a dead person?

I suppose it all depends on the terms of his police union pension, doesn't it?

I was wondering something along those lines - if his pension/retirement/life-insurance benefits would somehow depend on how he was sentenced, but it seems more likely that those would depend on conviction rather than a sentence.

Still, it would be a dick move to try to rob his beneficiaries of any benefits just because this guy was an asshole.

What about any restitution he might be order to pay to his victim? I could see his survivors not wanting to lose anything out of his estate, but that debt should still be recognized.